Parental involvement in preschool education and its contribution to children’s developmental outcomes

Abstract

This study aimed to examine parental involvement in preschool education and its contribution for the developmental outcomes of children. To achieve this purpose, the descriptive survey design was used and data were collected through questionnaire from 88 parent-child dyads selected through systematic random sampling technique from participants in four districts of Yika sub-city, Addis Ababa. The data were analyzed using mean, standard deviation, correlation and regression. The result showed that the level of parental involvement in their children’s preschool learning was below the average level on both home-based and preschool-based involvement dimensions. Parental monthly income had a significant and moderate positive relationship with home-based parental involvement. The regression analysis also showed an overall significant positive correlation between parental involvement and academic competence and social skills of children. The regression model illuminated that 36% of the variance in academic competence and 10% of the variance in social skills of children were explained by parental involvement. Therefore, it is concluded that parental involvement in their children’s education is minimal and highly influenced by the level of parental monthly income. Besides, parental involvement significantly determines the level of children’s academic competence and social skills but is negligible in terms of its association with their problem behavior.